The false dilemma is: “By using paper to print your email or by receiving paper bills you are knowingly degrading the environment, destroying forests and/or killing trees.” The forced choice is: “Eliminate your use of paper or feel like a guilty hypocrite.” In his newest report, Print vs. Digital Media: False Dilemmas and Forced Choices (download the PDF here), Don Carli, Senior Research Fellow at The Institute for Sustainable Communication, takes a clear-eyed look at organizations' insistence that we choose between print and digital media. Public opinion polls show that concern about the environment rises and falls based on the state of the economy, but concern about the negative impacts associated with using paper and printing continues to rise. Nothing captures the essence of these feelings more vividly than the signature line appearing at the foot of more and more emails: “Please consider the environment before printing this email.” This seemingly well-intentioned call to action, as well as others like “Sign up for paperless billing, help the environment and save trees” confront consumers with a false dilemma and they present a forced choice that may have unintended consequences. What’s implied is that digital media is the environmentally preferable choice and that print media is the environmentally destructive choice… but is it possible that digital media could be more destructive and a greater threat to trees and forests in the United States than papermaking or printing?

• Is it possible that the public is being intentionally deceived or unknowingly misled?
• Are these concerns and feelings of guilt about using paper based on rhetoric or realities?
• Must we choose between print and digital media? Is one really greener than the other?
• Are there sustainable ways to use paper and print media without feeling like a hypocrite?

In order to make informed and responsible choices it is important to be critical of claims that digital media is categorically greener than print media. Print and digital media both have positive and negative impacts on the environment. For that reason it is important for consumers and watchdog groups to be critical of vague or unsubstantiated claims and demand greater availability, accuracy and comparability of “lifecycle data” about print and digital media. Consumers can feel good about their media choices if they are armed with the facts, rather than being persuaded to feel guilty or hypocritical for not using digital media. Previous WhatTheyThink Going Green coverage of this topic with Carli. or read his recent article on GreenBiz.com.